I saw this assignment and instantly knew that I wanted to do something with it because there’s a lot of advice that I could give a younger me. However, I decided to reign it in and focus more on keeping my head in the game regarding schoolwork in college.
For this assignment, I recorded video of myself, which then corrupted, but thankfully had audio recorded in case. I wanted to have it be something relevant to myself then and the best I could think of is that I didn’t take anything very seriously back then. Even though I thought high school was stressful, I realize now that it isn’t by comparison and that it’s only going to become moreso, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing.
I used Windows Movie Maker to get everything put together. I recorded the audio using Windows 10 default program and added the audio after making a replacement video.
This assignment, worth four stars toward my weekly total of eight, was a bit more personal than I thought. That’s because this particular task involved the creation of a “letter,” in either audio or visual form, to our sixteen-year-old selves.
This could really be a video or audio. But write a letter to your 16 year old self. Talk about anything you want. (I.E: Don’t cut your hair, you will look crazy. Or, don’t stress out about college, you will get it!) Just talk about things that you wish the 16 year old version of you knew back then.
Since I didn’t have a lot of time on my hands, and I didn’t want to risk getting the “self-consciousness blues” again, I decided to make another slideshow. Timing everything to a recently-downloaded MP3 of the Killers’ anthem from 2006, “When You Were Young,” to tie back to when I was sixteen, I essentially told my past self not to worry too much about things he was going to get, anyway – not because his parents loved him, in that they did, but because he was intelligent enough, and paid attention enough, to know what needed to be done, and when to do it. I’m not even joking when I say that: I spent my senior year in high school trying to get good-enough grades not to graduate, but simply to get my letter, as in those letterman jackets all the stereotypical jocks wear in high school teen movies; I got what I wanted, the week of my graduation. I even used some public domain photos, available on Bing Images, of the Germanna Community College campus, and a previously-used photo of the entrance sign to the University of Mary Washington, since they were the only photos I had that were digital.
Sadly, even now, I think I have more doubts in my mind than anything remotely resembling confidence, but these letters are a good source of therapy for those who need it. Thankfully, I had enough time to get my points across, and complete a Daily Create challenge, on top of it. While I take my rest, having earned nine stars when I was only asked for eight this week, allow me to remind you that the video of my letter to my past self is available for viewing, on YouTube.
Four years ago now I was sixteen! Crazy! During that time my biggest hobby was programming, I used to do that all the time. Those were the good old days… not really. Looking back I wish I knew a lot of things, that I know now, but there is really one thing in particular!
If the video fails to embed, here is a direct link.
I thought this assignment. I thought it would be even cooler to do this one since I am back home, in my own room. I was cleaning my room so you can see an old Winnie the Pooh in the background, it is normally not sitting on my bed.
Anyway as for the creation of the video, I tried to find an interesting background behind me, and I thought the rockets were kind of cool looking so I left that there. I also like how the light comes in from the window on my right, and illuminates half of my face. The main thing that I was trying to do with this video though was to make sure it sounded personally. It wasn’t scripted at all, I really was just trying to sit down and give my younger self some advice.
I found it more difficult than I thought it would be to do this. It had been a really long time since I had recorded myself. In high school I used to make a lot of videos, that reminds me one time in high school health class we were to create an informative project on a topic. The one my friends and I got was on AIDS, I directed a comedic music video about AIDS, in which I rapped. Not one of my better ideas, it was pretty awesome though, and informative…
Anyway though, it really was difficult to create this video. I kept hitting roadblocks, like for example I couldn’t get IMovie to put the title in like I wanted, eventually I uploaded it then watched it on youtube, and saw it had two titles, so I had to redo it. ughhh.
But in the end I do think the video turned out well, and I do think the advice was much needed for the younger version of myself.
This assignment was to make a video to my 16 year old self. There is so much I want to say. So many things I want anyone who is 16 to be prepared for but at the same time life is about learning things about the world, many times on your own. I would not be the same person I am today if I had this advice but at the same time I love the person I am today. I might not be as successful as I could of been but I care more about the important things in my life. I care more about the world and people who inhabit it instead of the things that have no real value. I feel that I am a more worldly person and I want to do what I can in the future to change the world for the good even if I have to sacrifice all I have to make it happen.
To make this assignment I used Sreencast-O-Matic. It helped my record using my webcam and edit the video to what I needed. I use this software anytime I need to share my screen and to record myself. I am planning on using this when making my tutorials for DS106.
Initially I thought this assignment was going to be an easy 4 stars but after I had the idea I wanted to talk about and then started to think about the other things I wish I could tell myself I went off track and just started reflecting about my present and future self also. I like how it turned out because it felt natural. Instead of going back and redoing it I want to use the one that showed me.
I wrote this letter for myself, for 16 year old me. This assignment is worth 4 stars. I have been question myself a lot lately about my decisions and wondering what could I have done differently that would change were I ended up right now. I wasn’t blaming myself in my letter as much as wondering. I’m not questioning my decisions in terms of how I used to do things just because I’m not that kind of person who would go out and try new stuff every time. Maybe this why I was too committed to dancing and didn’t spend my time doing other things that can as interesting and as fun. I think you should watch to know more.
For this assignment, I decided to cinematically write a letter to my 16 year old self. It was a different time back in my younger years and looking back I made a lot of mistakes but, hey, you live and learn right?
For this I used iMovie to record and edit my video.
Take a moment to listen to what I have to say. Because everything, and I mean everything, is about to change. If only you had known that at the time … the value of that knowledge would have been way beyond a mere four stars.
Although 16 was not too long ago for me… 6 years to be exact. A lot has changed in my life and in the world. In this letter to a younger me I tell myself to keep with my passion of singing and not to let anyone tell me different. I tell myself to just be me! I assure myself that things will get better, and even though there is a war on things have improved.
I treated writing this letter as if I was to write one to myself, Erin. I gave advice and reassured my character that what they loved and what they were doing was not unnoticed in the world. Of course I geared the passion and interests to fit Veronica’s character. Over all this was an easy assignment, once of course I wrote out the letter. As always I applied a black and white filter to fit in with the time.
wow look at this thing. i did the letter to your 16 year old self assignment
i wanted to record myself saying the letter to myself but something’s going funky with the audio on my computer. it only plays a crackling noise and i don’t know whats up but i’m gonna call my dad about it tomorrow. so i took a screen recording using this app. and then took it to movie maker to speed it up and cut some parts. i think it turned out alright. i really wish my computer wasn’t being so weird and that i could have done it the way i originally wanted. but this kind of turned out cool too. you can see my thought process as i go through and you can see my typos as i make and fix them. i planned out pretty much what i wanted to say before and actually did a couple of takes before i got it right.
